The document provides observations and recommendations to improve internal communications at the VA. It recommends leveraging all internal communication channels such as social media, intranets, newsletters, and videos. It also recommends adopting a new leadership model called "Model X" which hybridizes leadership theories and communication network theory. Model X aims to establish effective communication norms enterprise-wide and improve the employee experience through more empowering leadership. It analyzes the current poor state of the VA's internal communications and leadership, and provides strategies to centralized information sharing and implement a hybrid communication network to better empower employees under Model X.

1. INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS
OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Cadet George Ngoh

2. CADET GEORGE NGOH
Personal Information
 Class Year
 2018
 Cadet Company
 Bravo Company, First Regiment, United States Corps of Cadets
Contact Information
 Email
 George.ngoh@usma.edu
 jorgengoh@gmail.com
 Phone
 (845)-842-8733
 Address
 PO Box #2523 West Point, NY 10996

3. BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT
In order for the VA to tackle its internal communications problems, it must do two
things:
 Leverage all channels of internal communications such as social media, intranets, web-based news, and
web-based video news.
 Adopt a new leadership model, Model X, which hybridizes leadership theories and Communication
Network Theory to form a VA-specific model designed to be employed enterprise-wide.

4. INTRODUCTION Setting the Stage

5. THE PROBLEM
The Department of Veterans Affairs is currently unable to fulfill its commitment to
America’s veterans
 Poor internal communications (IC) is a major factor
Improvement

6. WHY INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS?
The VA is championing a push to improve the “employee experience”
 Well conducted internal communications improve the “employee experience” by creating positive
feedback loops within the organization
 This gives employees a feeling that their opinion matters and that they are valued

7. HOW BAD IS THE VA’S INTERNAL
COMMUNICATIONS?
2016 Preliminary ADKAR Survey Results
 only about 44% of 2016 ADKAR survey respondents agreeing with the statement “I know how the VA
transformation affects me specifically.”
2015 FEVS (Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey) Report
 Only 58.23% of VA employees feel that their managers “effectively communicate the goals and
priorities of their organization”
 Only 46.91% of VA employees feel that their managers promote effective communication between
different work units.
 Only 61.74% of VA employees actually trust their supervisors, who are often the employee’s main
source of information.

8. HOW TO LOOK AT INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS
There are two components to IC
 Communications channels
 Social media
 Internet
 Intranet
 Print news
 Etc…
 People
 Members of the organization who need access to pertinent information

9. HOW TO IMPROVE INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS
Each of the two components needs their own strategy in order for IC as a whole to
improve
 Information channels
 Leverage all information pathways
 People
 Leadership model: Model X

10. PART 1 Information Channels

11. INFORMATION CHANNELS: THE STATUS QUO
The VA heavily relies on people disseminating information between themselves
 Internal periodicals or news sources are decentralized and extremely difficult to access
 Many are even difficult to navigate
Creativity…
This link
doesn’t even
work.

12. INFORMATION CHANNELS: THE STATUS QUO
VHA has 23 additional
intranets alone!
It took me two whole
weeks to find the
Department’s
newsletter!
While there is a lot of good information on here, this is very
dense. When juxtaposed with sites like Facebook, the VA’s
intranet looks like an online encyclopedia.

13. WHY DID IT TAKE ME TWO WEEKS TO FIND THE
NEWSLETTER?
Not too
concerned
about Iowa

14. WHAT ABOUT THE INTRANET ITSELF?
Not here…
But here.
(Not very intuitive, and I
could only get this box if I
conducted a search.)

15. INFORMATION CHANNELS: THE STRATEGY
Exploit all types of internal communications channels to deliver timely and accurate
information to VA employees
 Social media
 E-periodicals
 E-newsletters
Last Episode:
end of 2014
Oct/Nov 2014

16. INFORMATION CHANNELS: SOCIAL MEDIA
Case studies in social media platform (SMP) adoption
 Southwest Airlines
 SWALife
 77% of all access is employees seeking information from rich sources
 Centralized the source of employee accessed information
 Allowed employees to air their grievances through blogging
 Jyske Bank
 Winner: 2014 Best Internal Communications in Europe
 JB United
 Also centralized information source
 Even had a YouTube-like site that employees could use to upload and view videos
 Also allowed for blogging
(CEO)

17. INFORMATION CHANNELS: SOCIAL MEDIA
Significant similarities exist between the two case study SMPs
 Both centralized information sources
 Both allowed open employee discourse
 Both saw similar results
 Employee culture became stronger
 Executives were able to respond to criticism
 Justify their positions
 Take popular opinion into account and change positions
 Heavy use
 77% of all access to SWALife is employees seeking information from rich sources
 Improved IC
 Jyske Bank won an award for the best IC in Europe for 2014
The “It’s not that I’m
lazy, it’s just that I
don’t care” mantra
can change!

18. INFORMATION CHANNELS: PUBLICATIONS AND
VIDEOS
Nested within these case studies, and more prevalent elsewhere, is the use of
employee targeted periodicals and videos
 Publications
 Periodicals
 Newsletters
 All can be done on the web
 Videos
 News channel
Bring them back!
Oct/Nov 2014

19. PART 2 Leadership

20. LEADERSHIP: THE STATUS QUO
There is no enterprise-wide leadership model for the VA
VA employees have low opinions of their leadership
 2015 FEVS Results
 59.15% agree that “My supervisor provides me with opportunities to lead”
 35.53% agree that their leaders “generate high levels of motivation and commitment in the workforce”
 32.51% agree that “Creativity and innovation are rewarded” in their workspaces
We CAN get here!

21. LEADERSHIP: MODEL X
The proposed fix for the VA’s leadership problems is implementing Model X
Model X derives its efficacy from several premises:
 Both long and short term leadership strategies are necessary
 Guidelines are necessary to establish efficient norms of communication

22. MODEL X: WHAT THE VA WANTS
“VA leaders will be engaging, inspiring, and
empowering their employees to deliver a
seamless, integrated, and responsive Veteran
Experience. Leaders will be fostering a culture
of trust, inclusion, and accountability. A culture
of principles based – rather than rules based
– decision making will be encouraging
innovative change.”
- Transformation Update, May 2016
“Building a collaborative,
inclusive, and results-oriented
culture that inspires trust in
order to improve the Employee
Experience.”
-LDL Priorities Map

23. MODEL X: LONG TERM STRATEGY
Transformational leadership represents the backbone and chief form of long term
leadership
 Intrinsic motivation
 4 I’s of Transformational Leadership
 Idealized influence
 Inspirational motivation
 Intellectual stimulation
 Individualized consideration
Transactional leadership acts as a safety net to motivate the demotivated
 Extrinsic motivation
 Selective, novel incentives
“VA leaders will be engaging, inspiring, and empowering
their employees to deliver a seamless, integrated, and
responsive Veteran Experience. Leaders will be fostering a
culture of trust, inclusion, and accountability. A culture of
principles based – rather than rules based – decision making
will be encouraging innovative change.”
- Transformation Update, May 2016

24. MODEL X: SHORT TERM STRATEGY
Daniel Goleman’s model of situational leadership
 6 Roles of a situational leader
 Coaching leader
 Pacesetting leader
 Democratic leader
 Affiliative leader
 Authoritative leader
 Coercive leader
“VA leaders will be engaging, inspiring, and empowering
their employees to deliver a seamless, integrated, and
responsive Veteran Experience. Leaders will be fostering a
culture of trust, inclusion, and accountability. A culture of
principles based – rather than rules based – decision making
will be encouraging innovative change.”
- Transformation Update, May 2016

25. MODEL X: INTRO TO COMMUNICATION NETWORK
THEORY
Network Theory explores how people’s patterns of communication effect group
hierarchies
 It also explores the second and third order effects of the resulting hierarchical structures
In order to have an effective organization, the VA must try to optimize its employees
patterns of communication
Different types of networks yield different benefits
 A person’s (node’s) degree centrality is directly correlated with empowerment
 A network’s level of degree centrality is inversely related to complex problem solving capabilities and
leader empowerment
 Directly related to subordinate empowerment
Degree Centrality: the number of connections a node
(person) has in a communication network

26. MODEL X: COMMUNICATION NETWORK THEORY
The 5 major types of communication networks
 Wheel
 highly central, low subordinate empowerment, high leader empowerment
 Chain
 Moderately central, moderate subordinate empowerment, moderate leader empowerment
 Y
 Moderately central, moderate subordinate empowerment, moderate leader empowerment
 Circle
 Low centrality, high subordinate empowerment, low leader empowerment
 All-Channel
 Very low centrality, very high subordinate empowerment, very low leader empowerment

27. Subordinate
Manager
Leader
Leader
Subordinate
Subordinate
Subordinate
Subordinate
Leader
Manager
SubordinateSubordinate
Manager
Subordinate Leader
Subordinate
Subordinate
Leader
Subordinate
Subordinate
Subordinate
SubordinateChain
All-Channel
Wheel
Circle
Y
The Five Models

28. MODEL X: HYBRID NETWORK
The Hybrid Network combines the wheel and the all channel network
 Communication channels exist between all members of the group
 Decreases degree centrality and increases subordinate empowerment
 There are four main types of communication in a bureaucracy:
 Guidance
 Contextual information to aid in task completion
 Advice
 Providing carrier-centric suggestions
 Collaboration
 Communicating in order to complete a task
 Simple Communication
 Communicating intrapersonal information or task updates
 The distinction between task updates and collaboration is that simply updating somebody on a project does not aid in task
completion

29. MODEL X: HYBRID NETWORK
Group members are chiefly responsible for certain types of communication
 Leaders retain empowerment by chiefly communicating:
 Guidance
 Advise
 Subordinates gain empowerment by chiefly communicating:
 Collaboration
 Both are responsible for simple communication
 Establishes a discourse rich atmosphere

30. MODEL X: HYBRID NETWORK
Legend:
Collaboration
Simple Communication
Advice
Guidance
Note: Arrow points here
indicate that these
channels have only one
direction (does not affect
degree centrality)

31. MODEL X: A SUBORDINATE IN THE HYBRID
MODEL
*Each subordinate has a
degree centrality of 7

32. MODEL X: A LEADER IN THE HYBRID MODEL
*The leader has a
degree centrality of 9

33. MODEL X: HOW TO USE THE CHANNELS
Face-to-face communication is the most effective form of communication
 It is information rich and, therefore, better in convening complex information
 Verbal cues
 Body language
 Best ways to conduct face-to-face communication
 Formal meetings are the best
 Informal meetings are a close second
 After that, just try to maximize the amount of information transferred
 Skype
 Phone calls

34. COMMUNICATION CHANNELS AND
LEADERSHIP The Link to IC

35. COMMUNICATION CHANNELS AND LEADERSHIP:
THE LINK TO IC
Taking these two approaches will have several results on both a macro and micro
scale
 Macro
 Enterprise-wide positive feedback loop that empowers employees and adds to the Employee Experience
 VA can use LDL “Data Collection” and “Data Sorting and Analysis” tools in department wide efforts
 Micro
 Positive feedback loops within small units that add empowerment and improve the Employee Experience
 Establishment of formal communication channels that will accelerate information dissemination

36. THE TWO PRONGED APPROACH Implementation

37. HOW TO IMPLEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS:
COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
The answer here is simply resources and care
 Time
 Money
 Effort

38. HOW TO IMPLEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS: MODEL
X
Requires a nuanced approach
 Coopt the LDL principle of a “teachable point of view”
 The VA should institutionalize the concepts behind LDL to make leadership changes stick
 In order to be promoted leaders should have to:
 Teach an LDL class specifically designed around their position to those about to be promoted to their current leadership level
 Attend the same type of class for their upcoming leadership position

39. QUESTIONS?